Protesters deface the Hong Kong brand on the Legislative Council to protest towards the extradition invoice in Hong Kong on July 1, 2019.
Vincent Yu/AP
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Vincent Yu/AP
Protesters deface the Hong Kong brand on the Legislative Council to protest towards the extradition invoice in Hong Kong on July 1, 2019.
Vincent Yu/AP
HONG KONG — A Hong Kong court docket sentenced 12 folks Saturday to jail over the storming of the town’s legislative council constructing on the peak of the anti-government protests in 2019.
A whole lot of protesters swarmed into the legislature the evening of July 1, 2019 — the twenty second anniversary of the previous British colony’s return to China — defacing footage and smashing furnishings. Some spray-painted slogans within the chamber and painted over the territory’s emblem on a wall earlier than vacating the location as riot police cleared surrounding streets with tear gasoline earlier than shifting inside.
The 12 defendants, together with former pupil chief Althea Suen, actor Gregory Wong, and activists Ventus Lau and Owen Chow, have been beforehand convicted for rioting. A few of them have been additionally discovered responsible of different associated prices.
Choose Li Chi-ho handed down jail phrases ranging between 4 1/2 years and 6 years and 10 months, relying on the diploma of their involvement and mitigating elements.
Li stated the legislature holds a singular constitutional standing and the character of the occasion was critical, with a far-reaching influence.
The case additionally concerned two different defendants who have been reporters. They have been beforehand acquitted of the rioting cost however have been convicted for illegal entry into the legislature. One was fined 1,500 Hong Kong {dollars} ($192) and the opposite 1,000 Hong Kong {dollars} ($128), Li stated.
After the sentences have been handed down, some supporters of the defendants cried within the courtroom and plenty of others waved on the accused.
On Monday, Lau stated in a listening to that he entered the legislature in hopes of minimizing the variety of accidents. Even when he might select 100 occasions, he stated he would nonetheless go in as a result of he’d choose to go to jail moderately than witness somebody getting harm.
“Since I’m sympathetic to the protesters, I’m keen to go to jail with them,” he stated.
In the identical listening to, Chow stated when residents out of the blue turned radical, it was truly their cry of desperation when all paths to their aim have been blocked.
Each Lau and Chow have been among the many 47 pro-democracy activists who have been charged with subversion in 2021 over an unofficial main election underneath a Beijing-imposed nationwide safety legislation.
Hong Kong authorities stated the enactment of the legislation helped convey again stability to the town after the huge 2019 protests. However most of the metropolis’s main activists have been arrested underneath the legislation, whereas others fled overseas.